need to get pic sometime or off them when used

Yo Sushi

29 Milsom Place

Bath BA1 1BZ

Tel: 01225 562250

website: www.yosushi/com/restaurants/bath-milsom-place

Opening hours: Mon-Fri 11.30am-9pm; Sat 11.30am-10pm; Sun 11.30am-8pm

Last orders taken 30 minutes before closing

Disabled access

Takeaway available

Online ordering option

DESPITE the spread of restaurants like this one, lots of people still think sushi is all about raw fish, cold rice and searingly hot sauces. I confess I remained unconvinced - until this visit.

Forget supermarket sushi, with its unappealing little blobs of the above items on plastic-wrapped trays. This is the real thing, made completely fresh by a team of chefs in the kitchens which are part of this rather cavernous restaurant, so you can admire their dexterity as they fillet raw fish with alarmingly sharp knives and deftly wrap bits of rice and vegetables in coils of wafer-thin seaweed. Along with flash-frying rice and noodles, creating delicious sauces - and all with a smile.

Yes, some dishes are cold, and circulate round and round on a chilled conveyor belt so diners can pick them up as they slide past. Others are made to order and rushed to your table steaming hot.

There’s a huge range of options, with vegetables, fish and all sorts of meat on offer, with each dish priced according to a colour code. You stack the empty plates up and at the end of your meal the waitress calculates your bill. Drinks are priced as you’d expect in a restaurant, with wine, beer and soft options all available.

Yes, you can rack up a bill bigger than you expected, but it can also work the other way too: you can have three £2.50 dishes and finished your meal pleasantly full. And if you go on a Monday, when they do a blue plate special and lots of things are £2.50, you can easily have a great meal for £10.

So what did I sample? First a salmon sushi selection (£5), which had three slices of sashimi (slices), two nigiri (chunks) and two maki (what we think of as sushi, seaweed-wrapped rice with a fishy centre). The salmon was delicious, chilled enough but not so icy cold it did not taste of anything, and it was truly melt-in-the-mouth tender. Eaten dipped in soy sauce or as it came it was lovely.

Then Hoisin duck in a steamed Oishii bun (£4.30), which is a sort of small Japanese burger. The duck was delicious, the bun something new to me, made with steamed dough - good when hot but chewy once cold. Then came chicken firecracker rice (£3.40), a steaming bowl of spicy rice and vegetables, very tasty. My only regret afterwards was that I’d eaten them the wrong way round, as it could have been better to start with the very spicy rice and finish up with the sushi, as my mouth was rather hot for the rest of the evening.

My daughter, the family sushi fanatic, also had the salmon sushi selection too, having recommended it to me, and followed it up with a Kimchee Salmon Oishii bun (£3.90) and her favourite Japanese sweet, a custard dorayaki (£3.40) with raspberry puree to dip it in. A bit like a Scotch pancake with cold custard in, they also come with chocolate filling, and are very good.

More conservative son decided a Super Mega Bowl of rice and vegetables with chicken Katsu curry would suit him best, and it was certainly large enough even for his appetite. Being on special the night we went, at £8, it was also a bargain.

So if the thought of sushi frightens you, whatever your age, give it a go: it’s perfect for kids, little ones with smaller appetites don’t get over-faced and teenage grandchildren will love it.

ALISON PHILLIPS